Margaret’s book club with a difference

Margaret Chorley and her husband Bob with some of the books she has produced for people with Parkinson's.

Published:14:53Thursday 23 July 2015

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A retired youth and community worker with Parkinson’s disease has formed a book club with a difference to help give people with the degenerative condition a positive voice.

Margaret Chorley, 69, of Meadowfield Close, Pocklington, has been producing books for people with Parkinson’s using information that they send her, including poems, stories, their thoughts and feelings and pictures.

She compiles the information into a book for these people. She has also been printing copies for members of their family and for other members of the club, called the PD (Parkinson’s Disease) Book Club.

The grandmother-of-ten and mother-of-five said: “I was talking to people with Parkinson’s online about all different issues people don’t know about. I thought it would be like therapy to write their own thoughts and feelings.

“They are people and they have got stories. I want us to have a positive voice. They are writing their own stories and can give the book to relations and they can read about how they feel. They have got a book with their name on about who they are, they’re not just a disabled person.”

To create the book, Margaret, with the help of her husband Bob, 78, design pages using their computer and print them off on their own printer. They also bind the books themselves. So far Margaret has produced books for eight different people, who live in Britain or America and have contacted her through word of mouth or through Facebook. She has done it free of charge so far, and paid for the materials herself, but is thinking of charging a small fee in future to cover the costs for materials. It costs about £3.60 for materials to produce one of the books.

She explained: “They email me sometimes just a few lines at a time. I put it on my computer. I have got Desktop Publisher, I colour pages and put pictures on. I send them a draft copy.”

Margaret, who has lived in Pocklington for about seven years, is in the process of setting up a website - www.qualitycalendarsandyourdiystory.com - to promote the books she has printed so far and to explain how she produces them.

Everyone who has had a book printed by Margaret is a member of the PD Book Club.

Margaret is asking anyone in the Pocklington area with Parkinson’s who would like to produce a book to contact her by calling 07425 555732 or emailing conniebop@btinternet.com.